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Updated: June 22, 2025
"Bully for you, cap'en!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, who with the others of the rescued party was on deck, not liking the rather fusty odour of the schooner's cabin which, to do justice to Mrs Major Negus, did smell most abominably of seal-oil, and even worse scents!
"He had plenty of money, and soon became well known along the coast, which he searched thoroughly in his trading schooner, doing a brisk business in furs, seal-oil, and skins, and at the same time making frequent metallurgical discoveries and adventurous exploring expeditions.
As for his iron pot, his smoked meat, his stock of skins, and bottles of seal-oil, he leaves them under the guardianship of Marimonda in the grotto which he will now make his store-house, his kitchen: he will not encumber with them his new dwelling.
The snow-fog drifted away and the moon came out. Lucile crept out of the cabin and went in search of some new form of food. She found the spare-ribs of a seal hanging over a pole on one of the caches. It seemed fairly fresh, and when a piece was set simmering over the seal-oil lamp it gave forth an appetizing odor. The two girls stood by the window as the food cooked.
In this place also we found plenty of an herb called scurvy-grass, which we eat fried in seal-oil along with eggs, which so purified the blood, that it entirely removed all kind of swellings, of which many had died, and restored us all to as perfect health as when we first left England. We remained in this harbour till the 22d of December, 1592, in which time we had dried 20,000 penguins.
Two others were staggering under a load which appeared to be a sealskin filled with some liquid. "Seal-oil!" said Lucile. "What " and then the full meaning of it came to her like a flash. "Marian!" she said in an almost inaudible whisper, "they mean to burn the cabin. That's what the wood and oil are for to start the fire!" The words were hardly out of her mouth when Marian gripped her arm.
That same evening they brought on board all the goats-flesh they had salted, together with four casks of seal-oil, and every thing else they had on shore. A cross was set up on shore, at the foot of which a bottle was buried, containing a letter for Captain Shelvocke, appointing another place of rendezvous, with certain signals by which to know each other if they happened to meet at sea.
The casks of seal-oil were forthwith hauled up, for danger seemed to have given the men double strength. A few hatchet blows soon knocked in the heads, and they were then hung over the larboard and starboard. "Be ready!" shouted John, looking out for a favorable moment. In twenty seconds the yacht reached the bar. Now was the time. "Pour out!" cried the captain, "and God prosper it!"
The seal-oil lamp in the corner flickered constantly, sending a weird yellow light dancing from floor to ceiling. "Lucile," said Marian at last, "I can't stand it any longer. If it's someone in distress, they'll surely freeze, and then we could never forgive ourselves. The chain will let the door open a crack. If it's a bear, or a wolf, or a wild dog, he can't break the chain.
Shouldering the sleeping-bag, and leaving to Marian the remaining seal-oil in the skin-sack, the butcher knife, and the fishing outfit, she marched steadily forward on a course which in time would enable them to make the outer circle of the island. "See those piles of stones?" Lucile said fifteen minutes later. "Those did not just happen to be there. They were put there by men.
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